Daily Archives: November 22, 2017

No, the gun pictured is NOT a real gun. It is a prop that the pictured tour guide held as she narrated our excursion on the St. Paul (Minn.) Gangster Tour. That was a fascinating, historical part of our recent three-day Plus 60/Trailways Travel tour of the Twin Cities. Our Gangster Tour guide was dressed in appropriate clothing as she portrayed gangster Edna “the kissing bandit” Murray (1898-1966), a criminal associated with several high-profile gangs in the Depression-era of the early 1930s.

According to the Internet, she took part in as many robberies as her boyfriends and was popularly known to the media as the “Kissing Bandit” for distracting the victims with kisses while her partner robbed them.

She was known in the underworld as “Rabbit” for her skills in breaking out of prison three times. She was married to two criminals in the 1920s, but is best known as the lover and crime partner of Volney Davis.

Amazon sells a book, Run Rabbit Run – The Life, The Legend, and The Legacy of Edna “Rabbit” Murray, “The Kissing Bandit.” The story is told by Edna’s granddaughter Pam Paden Tippet. Information about the book notes that “Edna wasn’t your ordinary grandmother. She ran with the likes of the Ma Barker Gang, Alvin Karpis and even harbored John Dillinger and a dying John “Red” Hamilton. She served time with Barrow Gang member Blanche Barrow.”